Back in 2008 I wrote an article about the long life of Counter-Strike 1.6. Today I am writing some lines about the quick demise of Counter-Strike 1.6, so it seems. In fact, the time has come for Valve to downgrade CS a couple of notches in order to increase the new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive popularity among the youngsters and even among the old school gamers, although this will be done in rather different ways.

If you are just arriving to the wonderful world of gaming, you won't be playing CS for sure. A game with such graphics and poor looks isn't appealing to the newcomers and the fact that even a smartphone would run CS isn't an argument anymore, as most of the personal computers nowadays can handle a game quite fairly, even if some tweaking has to be done. So CS:GO is the natural CS substitute for this new generation that is getting into long hours of fun in front of a computer screen, cursing some John Doe and celebrating exquisite frags in several manners, usually involving yelling and exotic dances.

But is this a valid argument that the old schools players should take into account, when considering the change to a new game, after dedicating long years of their lives to the same game? I don't think so. The reason why most of them will change is because of the increasing prize-money in many CS:GO tournaments, quickly attracting the eSports professionals, the row models for many old school players that are used to watch their idols performing on the computer screens and even live. Copmplemented with the IT brands involvement, marketing campaigns and publicity, not to mention Valve's support, the final result is quite clear: CS 1.6 must go away so that CS:GO has a better and brighter life.

So, unlike in 2008 when I wrote that even if you push CS to the bottom of the sea, placing a foot on its head trying to drown it for good, the game would always come back to the surface and emerge, this time I think that this will be done in the old mafia style, tying CS to a chair, wearing some nice lead or concrete shoes, some short prayers, a quick push overboard in some dark unknown lake and that's it. The revivalists will keep exchanging great memories and reminiscing the fun moments for years, even playing some CS matches just for the sake of old times, but Counter-Strike 1.6 will move into its deserved place in the eSports Museum, whenever it will be built.

And for those of you that didn't recognize the Clash song from the title, or even worst don't know who Clash is (I pitty and despise you in a rather harsh and obvious way), all I can say is that “if I GO there will be trouble and if I stay it will be double”.